Same Day Flower Delivery Point Arkwright, Sunshine Coast

The birthday is today, you're a long way off, and the address you've been given is probably a number in the fifteen hundreds on David Low Way, which tells you less than you'd hope, because one street number there can have a whole block of units behind it. So the unit number goes in the notes, and a mobile too. If they've moved to Sundale Coolum Waters, say if it's a unit in the village or a room in the care centre (they're different doors, and the difference matters on the day). One in five people here is over 65, and if it's an 80th, our 80th birthday flowers are the place to look; our birthday flowers cover every other age. For a care room I'd pick the Bright Arrangement With Chocolates.

In an arrangement the stems drink from wet foam inside the box, so nobody has to find a vase. A splash of water into the foam every couple of days keeps it going.

An anniversary here might be at home or in a holiday let booked for the week, and we deliver to both the same day. In 2008 I delivered an anniversary bunch to the units near Point Danger, the headland above Coolangatta. The notes said: third floor, the balcony with the telescope. Every balcony had a telescope (whale season, of course it was). In the end the husband, in a dressing gown, pointed me down to the lookout, where his wife was counting humpbacks. She read the card and said he'd never once remembered. He had, that year.

Point Arkwright is the same kind of headland, and the whales go past here in spring too. So when you order our anniversary flowers, skip the balcony and put the unit number, the booking name and a mobile in the notes.

Anna's call: holiday lets rarely have a decent vase, so the 2 Lily Stems In Glass Vase is the one that arrives ready to stand. On roses, peel off the one or two tired outer petals. Those are guard petals, and they did their job on the trip.

Someone has died, and the notice gives a chapel, a time and little else. For the service, put the funeral director's name and the service time in the notes; in our experience the flowers go to the director beforehand, so for a morning service, order the day before. For the family, send sympathy flowers for the home, now or in the quiet week after. Flowers won't fix anything, and the family will still read every card. “Thinking of you all, with love” is enough.

Anna, on sheath or bunch

A sheath is built flat-backed to lie down, so the Pink Rose Sheath needs nothing to stand in through the service, and afterwards it can be untied and put in a vase at home. A bunch is made to go straight into water, which is why it suits the family's kitchen. For a celebration of life, colour is welcome, and our funeral flowers run from whites to brights.

Plenty of orders don't fit a heading: the neighbour who watches the unit while you're away, a friend in a new place, someone you haven't rung in too long. Our thank-you flowers and native flowers cover most of it. Anna has a view on this one.

The Australian Native Arrangement. Protea and leucadendron shrug off salt air and a sunny sill. Once the softer stems finish, pull the leucadendron out and stand it in a dry vase, and it keeps its colour for months.